What do you offer and to whom? I work with Vicky Applebee, director of operations, and, together, we offer comprehensive, affordable respite to families who are trying to keep their loved ones home instead of resorting to facilities. Most of our clientele are seniors with varying forms of dementia or physical frailty, making it unsafe for them to stay at home alone. Therefore, their caregivers need a break. It’s safe to say that 90 percent of our clientele would need to resort to paying double for in-home care or need to move to a skilled nursing facility or a memory unit in an assisted living facility.

Why? What motivates you? All of my working career has involved caretaking. I started out as a candy striper at Cooley Dickinson Hospital when I was 15 and held many roles in the health field. I hold a degree in social work, specializing in gerontology, and was driven to open a geriatric care management firm in 2003; through it, I learned that keeping seniors at home is extremely costly, so in 2012, I opened Golden Moments Adult Day program. It offers seniors and their loved ones the best of both worlds: living at home with socialization, activities and security during the day.

What sets you apart? Golden Moments is small, private and very homelike. We have the capacity to take on only 16 people at a time. We are very conscious and aware of seniors’ individual needs.

What mark do you hope to make on your community? In order to keep seniors in their homes, it takes many community services, and Golden Moments is now in integral part of that community resource.